The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1887-08-05
Earth Building.


A writer in the audubon Magazine says =
II plants and trees were simply to die where
they live, they would not render the soil fer
tile; what they take from the air would go
back 10 the air, and nothing would 60 back
to the soil except the little they take up by
their roots just as when wood is burnt, moth
ing goes back TO the earth but the ashes
which came from II. Peas and indigo and
tea and coffee are exceptions, they take nitro
gen from the air like animals. But almost
every plant that grows is eaten by some crea-
ture, either in Its green state, or when dry,
or while it Is going TO decay. In this latter
stage 1t is eaten by worms and other crea-
lures, some of them SO small that they are not
visible without the aid of microscope.
But everything is eaten, and although in
the process of digestion something goes back
to the air again, large portion goes to en-
rich the soil with plant food, rendering it
lore fertile. A cow eating ton of grass or
hay, assisted by What it taxes from the air,
will make az mi s.h manure as will supply
plant food to tYfi or three tons of fresh grass
And so 1t is ttatwhen the farmer finds his
crops getting poorer and poorer every year,
and leaves the land until iallow, the worms
and other creatures In the soil cat all the plant
roots and dead leaves, and create plant
food which provides for crop of weeds in
the insects, and in few years the fertility of
the soil 10 restored in whole or In part The
worms and minute creatures In the soil con-
vert the plants into what is called the ve!e-
table mould, and the birds preying ON worms
and insects supply what is necessary 10 rem
der the soil fertile for grain crops The black
soil is really not vegetable mould because il
has all passed through the worms and soil
microbes, as the minute creatures are called,
but until lately no one knew that.
This then is the secret of the earth's ferti
lily. Every creature that lives returns more
to these than it takes from il it gives 1t all
back with something added which it takes
from the air-fnally 1t gives its own body
Consequently. in state of nature, the soil
always tends to grow richer from year to
year, from generation TO generation.
Perhaps the most wonderful fact in this
connection is that one of the substances, call
ed carbon, exists In the air in quantity not
sufficient 10 cover the whole dry land OF the
earth with mature forests at one lime. The
plants and animals OF one generation must
die TO set free the carbon needed for the next
generation, go that the carbon, which con-
stitutes more than fourth OF the bodies of
living plants and animals, is the very self
same carbon which entered into the sub
stance of the plants and animals of the pre-
adamite ages, and of every generation that
has lived since.
Nature is very lavish of all the other sub
stances derived from the air. Tie rains and
rivers of this country wash away about four
inches of its surface every century, and thus
great part Of the plant food, which plants
and animals take from the air, is carried to
the ocean, necessitating the constant and
universal activity of life and death TO replace
it by fresh drafts from the air but nature
is very economical of her carbon-animals |
give it back 10 the air with every BREATH and |
plants as constantly take 1t in by their leaves |
But there is one substance necessary to |
men and animals, that is the phosphorus |
which entered into the formation Of their |
bones and BRAIN which does not exist in the |
air, nor originally in tue rocks For this |
NJ cessary substance we are indebted to the |
fish, which distracted il from the waters of |
of the ocean, used 1t to form their own bones, |
rendered it insoluble in water and left it at |
the bottom of the ocean, so that when the |
continents were upheaved, the ocean mud /
was of it plants taken from the soil and men |
and animals got the necessary supply In |
their food and thus it is that man, the high. |
est branch of the tree of life, has inherited |
the substance of his body, not only from all
the past generations of life on earth, but be
has also inherited some of his substance from
the fishes which lived and died 10 the ocean
which once flowed over this continent and
from the great creatures which lived on the
dry land-the giant saurians of by-gone
age. These giant reptiles, some of them fifty
or sixty feet long, which swan in the water,
padded in the mud and roamed over the dry
land and some of which flew through the air.
left their bones as an inheritance, so that we
are their heirs
The roots of the tree of life stretch down.
ward and backward and derive their support
from the earliest creatures that first put on
the mystery of life In air and sea, when as
yet no part of the earths crust had raised It.
self above the oceans level.
Every creature that lives is an earth bull
der living 1t adds daily 10 the earth's crust
dying 1t builds Its body into 1t. Every drop
of water in ocean, lake or river Is full of liv-
ing creatures, invisible to the naked eye, but
dying by millions every minute, they fall to
the bottom until their remains cover 1t with
Q bed of mud of vast thickness. Nothing
lives In vain; creatures individually most in
significant play most important parts as earth
builders, and man could have no more exist
ed without the lowly creatures which lived
on the earth before him, than the topmost
branches of tree could exist il there were
no trunk and roots.
And thus not only in the past but in this
present, the creatures most important to man
are the microscopic jewellers in the soil. The
farmer may dress his land with stable manure,
but unless these minute creatures were pres
ent to pass 1t through their own system, aud
create mould ofuniform quality, his returns
would be but small.